This study provides insights into social disparities in exposure to these two types of chemicals, and sheds light on hypothesized sources of exposure.
Results suggest that disparities in exposure depend on pollutant type.
Across all groups, black and Hispanic children were exposed to more adversities compared with white children, and income disparities in exposure were larger than racial/ethnic disparities.
Casey works in the lab of Berkeley professor and study co-author Rachel Morello-Frosch, whose research has extensively examined racial, ethnic and economic disparities in exposure to environmental pollutants.
On average, within individual urban areas, the disparities in exposure by race (after controlling for income) were more than two times as large as the disparities by income (after controlling for race).
"In her academic work and her private activities, Danielle Purifoy has dedicated herself to understanding and correcting racial injustice, especially as it relates to racial disparities in exposure to environmental and public health risk," said Megan Mullin, who nominated Purifoy.
- In Communities of Color, including African-American, Native, Hispanic, and Asian communities, the incidence of disability is often higher due to health care disparities and exposure to more environmental risks.
Tennessee, for example, has the highest disparities in exposure: the minority share of the health risk is 43percentt while the minority share of that state's population is 21percentt.
In a new study funded by the Institute for New Economic Thinking's Political Economy of Distribution Series, Boyce collaborates with Klara Zwickl and Michael Ash to compare disparities of exposure to industrial air pollution in U.S. states and congressional districts among the poor and non-poor, as well as whites and non-whites.
This paradox – disparities in exposure vs. disparities in effects – may be due to unmeasured environmental rather that biologic factors.
